A Historical First:
A Conversation with The Presidents’

BY DALLION FRANCIS (excerpt)

This was an epic event indeed. The 42nd and 43rd Presidents of The United States, one Republican the other Democrat together on one platform in a unprecedented move to discuss world affairs.

 

Opening remarks were given by Richard Dolan of Bydolan Group of Companies, a self-leadership and corporate messaging practice. Carol Wilding CEO Toronto Board of Trade gave an address and Ed Clarke President/CEO TD Bank introduced both presidents.

 

A lot of history was created on this day, Friday May 29, 2009. This was the first time that two ex-presidents met together like this in Toronto, it was also the first time that these two ex-presidents have met on stage for a forum like this and this was also the first time in history that George Bush a president known for his many grammatical errors during his speeches gave a better speech than the eloquent orator Bill Clinton. Bush’s' speech was punctuated with humour right throughout. He even referred to Clinton as his brother because his mother had commented that Clinton was now like a son to her due to all the work that her husband was now doing with Clinton.

 

In his speech Clinton spoke about the role he is now playing as an ex-president. He said the hardest thing for him to get used to is not hearing the song "here comes our chief" being played when he enters a room.

 

Mr. Bush mentioned his visit to a hardware store in Texas that had made him a job offer, a gentleman in the store saw him and said "you look like George Bush, do you get that a lot?" He replied "all the time" to which the gentleman responded "you must hate that".